Episode 1017: The Ryan Raburn is Due Edition
Date February 8, 2017 Summary Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about the anticlimactic approach of spring training and answer listener emails about baseball reductionism, investing in Little League, the Cardinals’ effect on the Cubs, transplanting Trout and Kershaw, and wearing out starters, with a statistical detour to talk about history’s most volatile hitters. Topics * Baseball reductionism * Making baseball appeal to younger kids * Ex-Cardinals players on the Cubs * Ryan Raburn's volatility * Bad teams with Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw * Value of driving up starter pitch counts Intro Thrush Hermit, "We Are Being Reduced" Outro Bob Dylan, "Gates of Eden" Banter * Ben notes the tendency Jeff has had to write about topics they discuss they day before on the podcast, to which Jeff points out that it is one of the slowest parts of the baseball calendar. * Pitchers and catchers will report to spring training next week but neither Ben or Jeff expect things to be very interesting. Jeff says it is "worse than useless". * Episode 1016 follow-up: Listener Justin emailed in noting that the Dodgers signed Hisashi Iwakuma and then rejected him for health reasons. He would go on to make more than 30 starts that season. Email Questions * Eric (Plainview): "I view the world from a reductionist point of view and so that is how I view baseball too. Do you see a point where the reduction stops? In other words for hitting, is measuring bat speed and swing path enough to measure a hitter's performance? Or should we go further and measure the physics of their muscle contractions or measure the neural networks in their brain?" * Brent: "If you were Rob Manfred and you were tasked with making baseball interesting to younger demographics, what would you do?" * Ron: "Were recent ex-Cardinals disproportionately represented on the Cubs' World Series roster? If so, did they contribute disproportionately to the World Series?" * Zacharia: "If you were to somehow force both Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw to another team, which teams, even with both of them on them, do you think still wouldn't have a chance of making the playoffs in 2017?" * Eric: "Is getting a starter out of a game due to high pitch counts good for an opposing team? Perhaps it isn't ideal for that game but helps down the line. Maybe it's more important to do so against divisional opponents." Stat Blast * By wRC+, Jeff concludes that Ryan Raburn is the most volatile hitter in baseball history. His wRC+ the last five seasons has been: 28, 149, 50, 154, and 73. * Gates Brown also had extreme swings in wRC+ but with fewer plate appearances than Raburn (minimum 100 plate appearances). Notes * There is research to suggest that playing baseball as a child is one of the biggest indicators of whether or not you will be a baseball fan. * Gates Brown once was called to pinch hit while eating hot dogs on the bench. He stuffed one into his jersey and shortly after the ketchup bled through his jersey. Links * Effectively Wild Episode 1017: The Ryan Raburn is Due Edition Category:Episodes Category:Email Episodes